The word that seldom comes up in the current arguments over homosexual marriage is "love." The implication seems to be that attraction to deviant sexual behavior motivates the call for marriage. But in these days, it's not necessary to marry for sex.

Except sometimes for practical reasons, people marry for love and companionship. Quite apart from the benefits of legal marriage, homosexuals want their unions to be respected just as are those of heterosexuals. They are friends, who respect, as well as love, each other.

Having grown up in more innocent times, I was nearly 40 before I knew about homosexuality. I asked a distinguished psychiatrist, to explain it to me. He said that everyone goes through a homosexual phase in early sexual development. Most people naturally proceed to heterosexuality as development continues, but some remain in the homosexual phase into sexual maturity. That is not a choice, but a developmental "accident." Some do not recognize it for years. So it is natural for those people to be attracted to and find a mate from "where they are" and "who they are."

How ironic to be concerned for the welfare of children adopted by committed homosexual couples when thousands of children are born to unmarried women and reared by them in difficult single-parent circumstances.

For religious groups, the possibility of procreation determines the legitimacy of marriage. Their views are entitled to respect, but don't justify blocking legal marriage for the faithful, monogamous unions of homosexual fellow citizens.

Dorothy E. Prince, Auburn